After the adjustments that enabled Lightning to be successful with step 6 of the double T, the full T, the next morning we began work on step 7, the actual double T. As Mike Lardy illustrates in the TRT video, the double T course uses two horizontal lines with bumpers at the ends, for a total of four “Over” destinations, in addition to the main pile at the end of the 100y baseline.

Our setup currently uses 40y arms for the Over piles to reduce confusion on the Back casts, though we’ll gradually reduce that to 20y arms over future sessions.

I’ve also begun introducing both orange and white 2″ bumpers with ropes rather than using only white bumpers with no ropes.

Finally, to strengthen returns, I’m using food to reinforce every delivery. Of course I’ll fade that over time, too, but having Lightning develop a good retrieve pattern is more important to me than whether people have a problem with me using food for training.

Mike provides a thorough discussion and illustration of traditional double T training. Our approach in PRT is the same, except that we use no force or corrections. Here’s a video from this morning of our third double T session:

Some notes:

• I really don’t like the way I look in videos. Oh well.
• I’m also somewhat surprised at how harsh I sound when I call Lightning off an incorrect response. Well, at least Lightning does get clear communication.
• I don’t intentionally move my hand when sending Lightning, and wasn’t aware I’m doing that. My intent is to hold my hand still when sending.

Although I have tried to send Lightning on plenty of freebies as we’ve worked on the full T and double T, he still tries occasionally to anticipate whistles and Over casts. He’s steadily improved on that as we’ve been working on steps 6 and 7, and I expect continued improvement during the next few sessions before we go onto step 8, disciplined casting, the last step of the double T.